Factory

Abstract

In a series of essays critiquing industrialized manufacturing entitled Factory Work: As It Is and Might Be (1884), William Morris elucidated the social underpinnings of the British Arts and Crafts movement, which found in handicraft a philosophy that unified labor, education, and economic production. One hundred and forty years later, the relationship between learning and labor continues to bear relevance, with increasing visibility placed on the nature of work post-Covid, and the four-year bachelor’s degree regularly questioned as the best path to a career. This thesis foregrounds the contemporary importance of Craft as a theory of labor, tracing its educational ideology as it evolved within the context of American craft schools before investigating a manifestation of Morris’s vision for the present moment. Unlike a “makerspace,” “research incubator,” nostalgic craft school, or any other contemporary dilution of craft philosophy, Factory places on the table a method of production which considers the end-product secondary to the empowerment gained through traditions of learning that surround handwork.